[ggcb]

gov owned companies excuse for existing is the acceptance of the benefits to society if such enterprises controls the monopoly.

you don't expect the water and power dept leaving out a neighborhood just so the free enterprise have a chance there, do you?

[addicted]

The fact that govt owned/regulated monopolies make sense in some industries does not contradict what the OP says.

A very obvious example in India is the Indian airline industry. As an intern I worked with an investment bank on preparing a pitch for the sale of a private Indian airline, and the entire thing basically hinged on what the government wanted to do with the national airlines (which since then have been merged). The Indian government’s recent inability to sell Air India has led them to take action that, at least to an outside observer who did some pretty in depth research, albeit a decade ago, appears to have been driven by reducing competition for the government airline.